Session Information
25 SES 06, Participation and Self-Expression
Paper Session
Contribution
From the end of the 19th century onwards, a dividing line was drawn between childhood and adulthood on the base of age. As such, a ‘child world’ that can be distinguished from an ‘adult world’ was established. On the one hand, this has as a consequence that children obtain their own ‘place’: institutions focusing on the life world of children were established and children were from now on increasingly approached with focus on their particular needs and experiences. In the field of education and care this resulted in the adoption of the first children’s laws at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century in most western countries (the law on compulsory education, the law on the prohibition of child labor, the law on child protection). On the other hand, this distinction implies a form of segregation that functioned as a controlling strategy on childhood and as an adjusting strategy into adulthood. From the ‘60s on the segregated child world became more and more considered problematic. Among other things, the children’s rights movement was influential in the construction of this critique. The critique was twofold. On the one hand the lack of recognition of the competence of children was criticized. On the other hand, and based on the first critique, the segregation in a distinct child world was questioned. Today, the segregated child world is the more and more considered as part of a mythical geography of childhood, resulting in mythical landscapes of childhood reassuring adults that things are what they wish them to be. The past decades, the focus has shifted towards participation, that serves as a key concept to criticize the growing institutionalization of the living environment of children and youngsters. Within this respect, it is interesting to see e.g. how ‘the right to be heard’ has evolved towards ‘the right to participation’. Participation should make it possible to bring children back to the mainlands that they must – inevitably – share with adults.
In this contribution, the segregation of children/youngsters and adults serves as a step-up to reflect on possible meanings of participation for education.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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